Vice President of Fudan University CHEN Zhimin met with David Miliband
On March 9, David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), visited the Institute for Global Public Policy at Fudan University (IGPP) to participate in the inaugural meeting of the Global Leadership Series.
He engaged with Fudan faculty and students in discussions about international humanitarian crises, humanitarian aid, and the current global situation. Prof. JING Yijia, Dean of IGPP, met with the delegation. Benjamin Griffin, Consul at British Consulate-General Shanghai, attended the event.
Miliband is a renowned British politician who previously served as the UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Secretary of State for Environment. After leaving politics, he became President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, headquartered in New York City. This organization, founded by Albert Einstein in 1933, currently provides humanitarian relief for emergencies in over 40 war-affected countries and offers refugee resettlement and assistance programs in more than 20 American cities. As the son of refugees who fled to Britain during World War II, Miliband is wholeheartedly devoted to international humanitarian relief work.
Currently, 300 million people worldwide need humanitarian assistance. Miliband pointed out in the speech The World's Flashpoints: Building A United Effort For Humanitarian Action, the 67th lecture of the Fudan-LSE Lecture Series, Humanitarian actions to save lives in conflicts and disasters are more necessary than ever before.
To optimize international humanitarian relief, Miliband proposed improvements in eight areas including clarifying common goals; practicing evidence-based approaches; utilizing technological revolution to enhance relief efficiency; optimizing resource allocation; promoting sustainable financing; coordinating debt relief and investment to prevent capital outflows; sharing global responsibilities; and building a unified collaborative system with clear rights and responsibilities for all parties. He suggested transforming international humanitarian action from a sector into a system.
In the dialogue International Humanitarian Aid In A Turbulent World, Miliband, along with Associate Prof. LU Zhian of the School of Law, Prof. LIN Xi of the Institute of Advanced Study in Social Sciences, and Associate Prof. ZHANG Chuchu of the School of International Relations & Public Affairs shared opinions on theoretical and practical issues in the current paradigm shift of international humanitarian relief, resource challenges posed by populism and U.S. cuts to international development funding, security risks faced by relief workers in humanitarian operations, and the increasing involvement of Global South countries in humanitarian actions.
In his advice to Chinese and global youth entering the international humanitarian relief cause, Miliband emphasized that the field needs not only professional technical talents in medicine, water resources, and education, but also urgently requires interdisciplinary talents in strategic planning, legal support, and resource coordination.
The current humanitarian work is showing a trend of localization, with more than 90% of the positions being undertaken by personnel from the host countries. Miliband suggested that young people actively accumulate field experience while completing higher education, cultivating multi-dimensional abilities through both academic and practical approaches.
During the visit, Mr. Miliband's delegation toured the LSE-Fudan Research Centre for Global Public Policy and the Institute for Global Public Policy at Fudan University (IGPP).
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Presented by Fudan University Media Center
Writer: Edward Eldar Turdmat
Proofreader: WANG Jingyang
Editor: WANG Mengqi, LI Yijie
